FEELING THE JOEMENTUM…. Last Tuesday, when Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) announced his willingness to join a Republican filibuster against health care reform, he at least gave himself a little wiggle room. He said, for example, that he “wants to vote for health care reform this year,” but added that he can’t let the Senate vote on the bill based on “what it is now.” Since the legislation is bound to change, Lieberman had some room to move.
Yesterday, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Lieberman was more categorical. Given a choice between allowing some consumers to have a choice between competing public and private health plans and doing absolutely nothing, the Connecticut senator prefers the latter.
SCHIEFFER: But is what you’re also saying is that nothing is better than a government health insurance, or a health insurance reform that includes a public option? Nothing is better than that?
LIEBERMAN: Well, the truth is that nothing is better than that because I think we ought to follow, if I may, the doctor’s oath in Congress as we deal with health care reform, do no harm.
The broken status quo is wreaking havoc in the United States, undermining the economy, forcing families into bankruptcy, and in thousands of cases, literally contributing to the deaths of Americans. But if the reform bill let’s some eligible consumers pay premiums for a public plan, Lieberman would rather let the status quo continue indefinitely, just as it is.
This is opposition to the public option — which 68% of Lieberman’s constituents support — taken to the extreme.
To add a touch of irony, the senator added that supporters of the public option — a group that includes most of the U.S. House, most of the U.S. Senate, most of the American electorate, and the White House — are the ones standing in the way of health care reform.
“I’d say to the people who are all of a sudden making the public option, a government health insurance company, the litmus test here, they’re stopping us from getting something done…. All of a sudden if you’re not for this government health insurance company, you’re against health care reform. I’d say to them, ‘Don’t stop us from getting something good and important done for the American people,’” Lieberman said.
Remember that, you heartless pro-reform monsters. Just because you support a popular, common-sense idea doesn’t mean you should avoid responsibility for Joe Lieberman joining Republicans and insurance companies to kill this once-in-a-generation opportunity.
Lets not forget, Joe Lieberman opposes the public option, opposes the public option with an opt-out compromise, opposes the public option with a trigger compromise, opposes the Baucus plan that had no public option whatsoever, opposes even working on comprehensive reform at all this year, and is prepared to use a filibuster tactic that he used to think shouldn’t exist.
Lieberman’s with Democrats on everything except foreign policy? I don’t think so.
